Trip to the British Museum

[us4-he2-gal2]

- Trip to the British Museum -

Hey enenuru -




Recently, I had been able to visit London and Oxford during a trip to a student conference in Oxford. This was possible as I am currently studying in German and the plane fare isn't as much as coming from Canada, for example. The BM ranks easily among the top museums in the world which makes it all the more impressive that admission is free to the public year round. I thought I would share a few highlights of my visit in terms of Mesopotamian artifacts seen.

Here is the front entrance to the BM which apparently was constructed in the 1800s in classical style. It is a sight unto itself, like walking up to the Parthenon no doubt.

Here are some sling bullets found during excavations at Lachish, in Israel, and taken by Archaeologists as tangible proof of the famous 'Siege of Lachish' as known from the Bible and also from the Annals of Sennacherib.

Hey we have an animal head, one of a pair, from the Temple of Ninhursag at the site of Early Dynastic Tell Al'Ubaid. I believe it is copper but I'm not sure exactly what animal is depicted most likely a big cat of some sort but it can't be a lion since there are also two lion heads displayed below (and which look quite different.) Or the smaller head below may be female lions and these are male perhaps.

The ornamental inscribed macehead from Lagash, dedicated to Ningirsu and mentioning Eannatum (see here)

Here we have the so called "Lamb in the Thicket" which was an explanation invented by its discoverer, Leonard Wooley, to make the Mesopotamian art more marketable to the Christian art. More recently, Mesopotamian Archaeologists tend to place the item in association with other Mesopotamian art. Depictions in early art of cultic objects in similar shape to this one do occur, and they appear to have been ritual stands for incense or some such.

Here we have the famous "Burney Relief" featuring a deity who may be Inanna or Ereshkigal. This item has been discussed in various places on enenuru (use the search feature and search Burney for examples). The piece was considerable larger than I expected in person, perhaps 24 inches or so in height. I found comparison with the next item (below) offered new perspective on the Burney plaque (following the information provided by the museum itself).

BM 122934: This figure is portion of a divine clay statue. It is extremely rare to find a divine statue from Mesopotamia in this state of preservation and, fortunately, even some of the original paint is still visible on this piece. It was described in M. Dick's "Born in Heaven, Made on Earth: The Making of the Cult Image in the Ancient Mesopotamia" (p. 57) as: "Fragment of a Terracotta statue in the round... the head and shoulders only, and the left arm down to the elbow, are preserved. The figure is that of a god, wearing the high horned mitre and sheepskin cloak; he was seated in a chair of which part of the back remains. The modeling of the figure is exceptionally fine and the preservation is unusually good; the whole had been painted with a thick gesso-like paint which decayed and swelled, but parts of it could be saved; the flesh of the face and arms were red, the beard and hair black, the skin robe apparently white with black lines between the locks of the fleece, the crown yellow and the necklace of red and yellow beads alternatively; the chair back was black." I think the author follows the description of Woolley and Mallowan, the original excavators of Ur where the piece was found. It is interesting to compare this piece with the Burney Relief situated directly next to it at the BM - doubtlessly for that purpose. According to the information posted on the signs next to this piece, the figure wore a horned hat in which the yellow paint would have stood for gold; close examination of the Burney Relief shows the same yellow tinging of the horned helmet. They both wear the same necklace according to the BM. And they both show red flecks of paint for the skin color. Because few medium of Mesopotamian art survive with original paint, or weren't painted to begin with, it is difficult to say how common place such color schemes would have been, though in theory, much more common place than surviving art may demonstrate.

[enkur]

And this is the digital reconstruction of the Burney's relief produced by the British Museum.

Attachments:

[creyente]

if the skin was red, could it be they were of redish/pinkish skin? would the lapiz eyes mean they had blue eyes too? that relief is similar to something ive seen before... and im not talking about art... could it be that its inanna and the other god is her husband who was sitting on a throne when she came back from the netherworld to take someone to replace her?

[sheshki]

Ok, some thoughts about your post, creyente.

"if the skin was red, could it be they were of redish/pinkish skin? would the lapiz eyes mean they had blue eyes too?"

>>>who? the gods, the people? if you mean the people, no. they also had no blue eyes. If you would judge the appearance of people by the look of the statues of their god there would have been blue people in ancient egypt
Some crazies out there on the internet have this theory that because the sumerians used lapis (blue) for eyes of statues means the people themself had blue eyes and were therefore aryan...and therefore the aryans are the inventors of civilization per se... yes, i know, it´s impressive what people come up with.
the use of lapis has possibly more to do with the whole "the gods live in the sky- lapis looks like that sky" thing to do. i think our member Salmu could explain more about the color topic.

that relief is similar to something ive seen before...
>>>well, in one of your earlier posts you were talking about this relief....it is the one scholars discussing if it is Inanna, Ereshkigal, Lilith or maybe even a fake.


could it be that its inanna and the other god is her husband who was sitting on a throne when she came back from the netherworld to take someone to replace her?
>>> don´t know what you are talking about here.

A final note, this board has a somewhat academic approach, even tho not too many members are actual academics. What does that mean you might think. well, it means we are not overly keen on hearsay. if you are stating something provide us with a source. to say "i´ve heard this and that" does not help anyone who might want to know more, if you provide a citation for what you say that definitly helps.

otherwise, welcome on board creyente.

[Salmu]

Colour conventions in ancient visual culture have little to do with reality.

When Mesopotamian artists made representations they observed strict conventions: Lapis lazuli which is coloured dark blue through purple and black was the convention for rendering eyes, eyebrows and hair, this equates lapis with black in actuality if we impose our concepts of hue upon them (which is faulty reasoning anyway). They had ambiguous ideas about lighter blues which were often conflated with green in value.

Mesopotamia was not alone with this attitude, the Egyptians and early Greeks also followed this practice, particularly for depicting gods, because lapis mimics the heavenly fermament at night. High grade lapis has pyrite in it and it sparkles. In Homer the gods have lapis eyes and hair.

In Egypt and Mesopotamia gold was suitable for the body of statues of gods and lapis for their hair. Red was used for male figures, it was also considered a colour of heavenly value in Mesopotamia, generally associated with Anu. Gods being coloured red with blue details are signally divinity not humanity.

Also, if the convention for colouring a figure in ancient art dictated race the ancient Egyptians and Minoans would have been a mess: they portrayed men dark brown and women white or pink.

[creyente]

thanks to both of you for your answears, when i said that in the other post abpout an image, yes i was talking about this relief, but when i say saw it somewere not related to art, im reffering to an interesting experience in a dream i had before knowing about that relief, in wich someone similar, but not exactly like that, was trying to choke me to death, been just a dream, i cant say its something really significant... but it was a nightmare that marked my life... about if i was talking either about the people or the gods... any interpretation would be fine, i was talking about the gods in those images particulary... if thats the case it could be that either they were like that, or every god were like that, or everyone they knew were like that... since most of the time people seems to reflect their bekiefs in the experiences of their life... ive heard there was an ancient cult were they would sacrifice certain people who were born with reddish hair and lighter skin than the rest of the population or something like that... and talking about that... when i say ive heard i really mean heard... like with... talking with someone about this kind of things and listening to what they have to say, like yesterday i was talking about it with a girl and she sayd she thinks karma is real and its marked upon us by carbon particles or something like that... and while she was saying that, someone else said that babylonians were the ones who invented the patriarchy(wich i disagree) so, if i d not cite source its because i either dont remember who it was, or it was probably not worth to mention... lets just say... most of my resources are amateurs named with numbers from 1 to 23. some of them with either theology, anthropology or related knowledge from university but either not finished or not taken in deep while disscusing this kind of things on a park drinking wine and playing guitar...

thanks for the welcoming anyway, and thank you both for your answears!

does the fact that the greeks described their gods like that been something they took from ancient mesopotamia? or is it a paralel development?

if i had to imagine sumerians today, i would imagine them similar to hindu people, peraphs a bit lighter, maybe darker... but not too much... that way, it makes more sense that they are talking about pale or darker people in their writting...

about the part of the husband of inanna, i might be wrong but i think about this

"74 Inanna led them to where the wealthy shepherd Dumuzi sat beneath the tree. He was clothed in fine robes and sat comfortably enjoying the shade from his place on a throne. It was obvious that he did not mourn the loss of his dear wife."

taken from the temple of sumer. not sure if its the only/best version...

[sheshki]

creyente,

i have a link for you in case you are interested in a proper translation instead of an amateur interpretation of the text.

Inanna´s descent

taken from the electronic corpus of sumerian literatur (ETCSL)

[creyente]

thanks again, so, if that version of the myth is the one to take as the best translation. it still says:

"348-353. They followed her to the great apple tree in the plain of Kulaba. There was Dumuzid clothed in a magnificent garment and seated magnificently on a throne."

so my question about the broken statue that was in a chair is still a posibilitie, could it be dumuzid? the husband of inanna wich is one of the theories of the identity on that relief? if it was him, and the relief was inanna, they are both related to the myth of inanna's descent, since the relief has similar accesories to the ones that inanna had in the myth.

[creyente]

thanks for the advice, i dont know too many stories about inanna with a husband sitting on a throne while she came from the netherworld besides inanna's descent. i dont even know if there are many other myths about her going to the netherworld and coming back, unless we count the ishtar version as a different myth. ill try to be less vague in the future, but i still do not know many myths names in english or names of the experts, since i usually read what i find, i dont really look that much into the source... bad habit i have to change, i admit... and since mostly i speak spanish, i dont really know the names of the myths or artifacts in english most of the time. i hope i can learn fast enough to be a more productive member of this community.

so, my question in the less vague definition that i can make with my limited knowledge of enlgish and ancient mesopotamia is:

since the relief is believed to be inanna by some experts, and they say its because the accesories are the same she use in the myth in question. and the statue shared the same kind of paint, and its a god... could it be Dumuzid? the god, husband of inanna, who was sitting on a throne when she came back from the netherworld in the myth that some experts think the relief is representing?

[sheshki]

Well, it is unlikely that this god is Dumuzi. Gods, on cylinder seals for example, are often shown sitting on a throne.
The one in the picture also wears a horn crown that only the greater gods like Enki, Enlil and the like wear.
Dumuzi i think never was part of that circle and would have probaly worn a simple horn crown.

Below are examples of seated deities. The first two depict Nanna/Su´en, the moon god, the third one is Enki, the god of wisdom, residing in the Abzu. The standing god on the left is Utu, the sun god.

[creyente]

thanks, i didnt think about the helmet too much, i have to pay more atention to details... so, at least we can be sure that its not a godess, and it should be one of the greater gods... it reduces the number, but its still difficult to guess who could it be.

[creyente]

i know its not a match, i still dont know why would you think i do, im happy that im learning many things that i didnt knew before at a speed i could not reach without the help of this comunnity, even if im still a bit lost in the my way of explaining myself.

im not an expert of any kind, like i said before, so i didnt know how common could or could not be that kind of painting. if im not mistaken, the measuring rod is visible in the relief, also seems to have a bead necklace, like i said before, the little i know, is from either documentaries or online sources, mostly e-books. i could not say who wrote what, because all the things i had read before, i didnt even look at the name of the book, didnt even think about the name of who wrote it...

and sheshki had enough argument to convince me that it was not dumuzid as soon as the crown was pointed out. still, thanks for the insight, and sorry if it was rude the way i expresed myself, im still learning english, my first language is spanish and im more or less translating literaly what i would say in spanish, and im not sure if it sounds respectful in english...(ive had a similar problem while speaking with someone from brasil) anyway, thanks again to everyone who took their time to explain me all of this. hope i catch up with you all so i can be helpfull to this comunnity one day.

[enkur]

Inanna may be not directly associated with owls according to the available database, but Inanna is associated with the evening as well as the owls are implicitly associated with the evening.

[us4-he2-gal2]

Creyente: While we don't really work with information from dreams or visions here, I thought it was good that you made a guess or a suggestion about the seated god on a thtone, pictured above. According to the way we discuss things here at enenuru, it is okay, of course, to try your best to make a suggestion, even if it is wrong, as long as it is done by considering the right sources - academic books, and articles. We know it can be *very* difficult to get these books if you are not studying in the field, so we will help you to obtain this material if you would like to study it.

First, the website that Sheshki mentioned above, the ETCSL, is the best place anywhere to learn about Sumerian mythology and religion. This site was created by Oxford by some of the world's best scholars, and it is used by all Sumerologists who study Sumerian texts, and it is cited in the footnotes of modern books on the subject. I suggest you spend time on this website, learn all the myths and what they are called. You can ask about them here by linking the ETCSL website or using the titles they give to the texts - but remember, please ask what the ancients thought about religion, not about your own religious practice:

etcsl.orinst.ox.ac.uk/edition2/etcslbycat.php


Once you have studied this website and its material, I invite you to e-mail me, and I can send you a life time of reading on these subjects, more than can be read in a lifetime. [e-mail]

[creyente]

thank you, i wasnt trying to use my dream as a source, it was just a curious thing that i had a dream like that, im reading everything i find on that website, ive found an article about the silver pipes at ur, it said few things that discredit what ive found in other posts, but what is important is, it cites 2 sources, one is etcsl, and the other one is Theo Krispijn, and there are some differences between the two. is Theo Krispijn a good source for sumerian hymns? i still dont know many names of scholars to know who i should pay more atention to.

[us4-he2-gal2]

Theo Krispijn is a respected scholar, certainly, he works at a university in Leiden. Also, the following link is to the website ORRAC - it is the official Assyriological and Sumerological network of projects, you will find links to many databases built and run by scholars, and freely accessibly to the public for all to use. It will take a long time to learn to use these websites, but worth it:

oracc.museum.upenn.edu/

[creyente]

thanks, the more the better, ill take a look at those links... is there any book you think is important to get? i want to buy some books and i dont know where to start.